Flip the Coin
by websurffer
Summary: After a spell, Buffy snaps. Warning, slight gore and crazy Buffy. Spuffy. Oneshot.


There was a spell. A dark spell that not even the darkest or Chaos worshipers was willing to perform. Not because it was dark magic, but because of the effects of said spell. This spell, the _Contula Modlem_ allowed complete control over a party, so long as said party was sane. The only side effect of the _Contula Modlem_ was eventual insanity. Only the strongest of individuals even lasted for a few years. The average was a few months. Unfortunately for Ethan Rayne, by the time he cast the spell on one Buffy Summers the girl was already at the breaking point and this spell was just enough to send her over the brink into insanity.

* * *

Buffy blinked open her eyes. The last thing in her memory was a strange yellow beam of light hitting her and then the tinkling sound of broken glass. Turning to ask the glowing red fish who had sent the silly little light at her, she noticed the growing looks of horror of those entering the room she was in. Buffy blinked and looked in the same direction the people were before she started to laugh.

Ethan Rayne, Chaos worshipper and all around thorn in her side, was pinned to the wall by his own implements of torture. Two compass like things were viciously stabbed through his hands, blood dripping oozing down them to fall, drop by drop, to the worn stone floor below him with a faint plop. Another object, still vaguely twitching as his body attempted vainly to survive, was planted firmly through his left eye. Several other were embedded in Ethan's sides and a steadily growing puddle of blood formed under his dangling feet. With a huge final shudder, the Chaos worshiper went limp in death.

As those who arrived one the scene turned to Buffy in horror, shocked first by her laughter and then by her blood-covered appearance, she began to recite something she remembered from her days in high school.

"Because I could not stop for Death/ He kindly stopped for me/ the carriage held but just ourselves/ And Immortality. Who's immortal now, little fish? The fairies shant dance when you ask them to any more."

* * *

The Scoobies who stood in the doorway were frozen in shock. Their friend, who was all goodness and light, had just viciously murdered a man and was now spouting nonsense. None of them really knew what to so and when Buffy turned to them they all instinctively took a step backwards.

"Where'd my white knight go?" She whimpered, much to their surprise, just before she collapsed back into unconsciousness.

After a brief, but heated, debate, the Scoobies decided to load their fallen leader in Giles's ancient Citroen and take her back to the watcher's home. If nothing else, Spike was there and, after over a century of experience with Drusilla's ramblings, maybe he could offer some aid in deciphering what Buffy's rambling meant.

After a tense fifteen-minute drive, the relief the group felt as Giles's flat came into view was palpable. Giles's was left alone with the uncomfortable task of transporting his slayer inside, all of her friends practically flying through the door in an effort to escape the cause of their confusion. He sighed heavily and carried her inside. Just as he settled her onto his beaten old couch, her eyes snapped open. When she smiled beautifully at him, he believed for a moment that her ranting had just been from the stress and strain of the moment. As soon as her mouth opened, all of his hope was crushed and he felts as though a giant, icy hand was squeezing all the joy from his heart.

"The purple fish said I wasn't to tell the rest of the puppies what I heard but that's just cruel isn't it? The red puppy doesn't seem to like the brown puppy any more and they're all getting out of the master's hand again. Time to leash train, Mister. It's the law y'know."

As Giles sighed in defeat, he slid his glasses off and began to polish them. After a few moments of watching him, Buffy became disinterested and turned her attention to the rest of the flat. Spotting a tied up and completely forgotten Spike, she leapt up and squealed happily.

"The poet doth wield a sword of fire and the pixies do like him so! Oh, my William, will you keep the shadows away from me?"

When he looked at her in blank incomprehension, tears welled in her eyes and her lower lip trembled. Recognizing the warning signs of an impending hysterical fit from his time with Dru, Spike immediately gentled his features and smiled at the slayer.

"Can' keep much at bay tied t' this chair now can I, pet?"

Almost faster than he could register, the ropes that bound him fell away, no match for unrestrained slayer strength. Spike slowly stood and stretched the cramps of his legs and the stiffness out of his neck and shoulders. Before he could complete his stretch, his arms were full of needy slayer. His focus narrowed to her and her alone, burgeoning love shining clearly in his eyes.

As Giles watched his charge be enveloped into her mortal enemy's embrace he knew, with a calm irrefutability that she was forever broken, and perhaps happier for it.

* * *

"Becasue I Could not Stop for Death" Emily Dickinson 


End file.
